During the Formula One Turkish Grand Prix, Nikita Mazepin described wet conditions as “driving blind,” and he will apologise to Lewis Hamilton for almost causing a crash while being lapped.

During the wet race at the Istanbul Park track, the Haas driver experienced the worst of the spray thrown into the air at the back of the F1 pack, a problem he had to contend with both ahead of him and behind him while being lapped later in the race.

Mazepin felt the spray was worse at the Istanbul track because of dirt flicked up from the track surface, which made visibility difficult when combined with the pre-race rain shower and resulting spray.

On lap 28, Mazepin was going to be lapped by Hamilton, but he stayed on the racing line through the fast sweeping Turn 11, almost colliding and forcing Hamilton to avoid a collision.

The FIA race director, Michael Masi, investigated the near-collision between Mazepin and Hamilton but found that no further investigation was required.

Mazepin has apologized to Mercedes driver for the incident and was not investigated by the stewards for ignoring blue flags, blaming it on dirty spray and a lack of knowledge from his Haas crew about Hamilton.

“First of all, extremely sorry to Lewis. I’ve been complaining to the team that I can’t see anything with the mirrors, and I do need proper guidance in my ears on where the other cars are, because the spray – and Turkey isn’t exactly the cleanest spray that we have, so it flies and dries out – so I was driving blind,” Mazepin said, having finished the race in 20th place.

“When you get so many cars overtaking you lapping you actually not once, but even twice, it was just a disaster. I’m happy that we managed to get away, but I’ll see Lewis and I’ll apologise to him.”

Lando Norris also believed the spray at the Turkish track was worse than at other circuits due to dirt and residue from the track surface mixing with the water spray.

“The laps to the grid I basically couldn’t see a thing,” Norris said. “I was quite scared actually how bad it was and even on the first lap, but I think the first lap like I managed to get a gap and control it very well from then on.

“I think it’s because the water sits on the surface quite a bit. And like it obviously didn’t dry so there’s always that bit of water and I think it’s not like down in the cracks of it.

“It’s terrible at other tracks, probably every other track you go to, it’s just stayed bad for a little bit longer [here]. It was more like an oily water rather than just water so it became like a bit more blurry and stuff as well as much as water going into the visor.”

Tsunoda blamed the dirty spray for his race-ending spin in part because he couldn’t see clearly in his mirrors and assumed he had a car behind him, forcing him to push harder and turning.

“I just had a spin and tried to go faster. There was not [a clear] mirror, I couldn’t see anything because of dirt and dust,” he explained.

“I just couldn’t watch, I thought there’s a car right behind me so I just had to push and I spun but anyway the spin ruined my whole race so it’s a shame. We were able to score points today so it is just a shame.”

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